


Emerald Archer Kids: Island of Lian Yu

by MagusLibera



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Based on Spy Kids 2, Crack, Emerald Archer Secret Service, F/M, Felicity is Carmen, Laurel is Juni, Lian Yu Island (Arrow TV 2012), Minor John Diggle/Lyla Michaels, Minor Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Oliver is Gary, Silly, Sort Of, Spies & Secret Agents, Spy Kids (Movies) References, Spy Kids 2 AU, Teenagers, Thea is Gerti, but with Carmen aspects, but with Juni aspects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25713436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagusLibera/pseuds/MagusLibera
Summary: Laurel and Felicity intend to get the Lian Yu mission, but things go wrong when they lose an important device and Felicity gets fired. After hacking herself and her sister onto the mission and sending Oliver and Thea to the Sahara desert, they find that things are not what they seem on Lian Yu.Add into that some History between Oliver and Felicity and things get complicated.AKA a Spy Kids 2 AU that's not really a direct AU, more like based on Spy Kids 2
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 33
Kudos: 31
Collections: Fic or Dare Quarantine Game





	1. Emerald Archer Kids

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inlovewithimpossibility](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithimpossibility/gifts), [Oliverslicity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliverslicity/gifts).



> I lost the bet. I was told to write a Spy Kids 2 AU with Felicity as Carmen and Laurel as aged-up relevant Juni and Oliver and Thea as the Giggles' and a 50/50 split between dialogue and description.
> 
> I... sort of did that? I don't feel like I did the prompt justice but I switched it up a little and I don't know if the split is exactly 50/50 but there's definitely more dialogue than I would have normally done. So Cerys, Mandy, I hope this was what you were looking for, please don't give me loophole points I tried not to loophole!
> 
> I've not been posting as much lately as I've been busy with my NaNo fic. I got about 50% done during last month and will still be working on it until it's done, but I'm also going to try and do some one shots and stuff in between until then.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spies get into trouble.

**Chapter One: Emerald Archer Kids**

_“Calling in Agents Black Canary and Overwatch.”_ comes the false voice of the operation coordinator down the flesh coloured comm snug in Felicity’s ear. She looks over to Laurel, both of them sporting identical expressions of determination. They jump off of the carousel that they had been sat on, not wanting to waste any time as they rush from their position to converge on the target. Arriving at the Juggler, they find a bunch of adult so-called secret agents (supposedly the best of the best) just standing around uselessly, looking up at the top of the ride.

“What’s happening?” Laurel demands, all business.

“The President’s daughter broke the controls and climbed out of her pod, she’s stood at the top there!” one of them points up to where a young girl in her mid to late teens is hanging on to the swivelling ride, “Here, take these. They’re the latest in ascension technology.” Laurel and Felicity are both handed skeletal looking metal gloves and pull them onto their hands without question, assessing the technology. The tech geek in Felicity wants to stop to analyse the little devices and pull them apart piece by piece but she knows that there is no time to waste.

She and Laurel have this routine down to pat now, and need no discussion as they start to climb. Laurel is the people person, the fighter. Felicity is the tech girl, the thinker. “Miss Michaels,” Laurel yells as she nears the top, “Miss Michaels, I’m coming to rescue you!”

“NO!” the teenager yells back, “I want my father to come and get me!”

Felicity tunes out what is happening, and is nearing the secondary control panel when she hears something happening.

The agent is talking below, and Felicity can only get pieces of it but she can hear enough, “…me… Green Arrow… Speedy…” a whooshing sound fills her ears and she looks down, dreading what she’s going to see.

“Laurel!” she yells, “Laurel, we have company!” Laurel looks away from the determined, stubborn troublemaker and spots the same thing that Felicity has. A tall boy in his late teens, almost aged out of the programme and handsome to the point of annoying, and the tiny frame of his baby sister at his side. Both of them rising up the ride at twice the speed that Laurel and Felicity have, their ascension technology clearly not quite as cutting edge as the agent had claimed.

Laurel curses, “Felicity, make sure you fix it first! Miss Michaels, I’m imploring you to see reason, no good will come of this!”

Felicity has finally made her way to the panel, just ahead of the smug little kid climbing up behind her. She hacks away at it, fingers flying in a way that only an experienced hacker’s can, but apparently that is not good enough for the miniature menace that has arrived.

“Hi Felicity,” the girl says like they have met in a mall rather than at the top of a ride moving at a dangerous speed, with the President’s daughter just beside them, “Whatcha doin’?”

“Hi Thea,” Felicity grumbles, “I’m trying to stop the ride.”

“Why don’t you just put a bug on it, that’d do the trick just fine.” Felicity rolls her eyes. Of course she considered that, she is not stupid. But she also knows that she can work faster than a bug, and more efficiently too.

“I can sort it.” She snaps, but Thea is already placing the bug onto the device. The ride stops moving, and Thea gives Felicity a smug look as if it was the bug responsible. It was not, the timing was just inconvenient.

“Well, see ya.” Thea hops off of the structure, hovering over to where Laurel (and presumably the _other_ one) are trying to convince the President’s daughter that hanging off of a dangerous ride is no way to get her father’s attention.

Much slower than Thea, Felicity clambers her way over to where the others are, “Lyla” she hears a deep voice say, “Please hand over the device.” What device, what does that guy want?

“NO! Make my father come and take it from me!” Lyla Michaels, a girl about a year older than Felicity, demands.

“We need to get you to safety,” Laurel says, “Your father won’t be here any time soon.” Felicity winces, knowing from experience of once being a girl without a dad that those words will do no good. Time for an interjection.

“Lyla,” she calls out, hanging from the side of the structure, “Lyla, we’re level two agents! If you let us get you down to safety, we can order your father to talk to you!” that gets the girl’s attention.

“Really?” she asks.

“Really.” Felicity promises, “Just let my sister help you.” Lyla looks Felicity over, and then slowly goes over to Laurel.

Before Laurel can start to descend, the boy swoops in and snatches something from Lyla’s hands, “Hey!” Laurel protests.

“Look,” Oliver Queen lays on the charm that he knows has Laurel melting every time, “You take the President’s daughter, I’ll take the device. It’s a win-win.”

“Okay, that seems fair.” Laurel bats her eyelids at Oliver, making Felicity roll her eyes. She does not trust this arrangement, but has no other choice.

They all descend, expecting to be greeted by applause, but the agents are long gone, surrounding stupid Queen and whatever device he took. Felicity knew that this was a bad plan. When they notice Lyla, they tear her from Laurel and Felicity, “You’re in big trouble, young lady.” They tell the surly teen.

“Wait!” they have to obey Felicity’s order, “I promised she could speak to her father.”

“Oh, her father will be having a talk with her, alright.” One of them says, and Lyla shoots a remorseful look at Felicity before the door slams shut.

“Promise me no more of these pointless assignments.” Felicity laments to her step-sister.

“Agreed.” Laurel looks as annoyed as Felicity, but cannot stop glancing over at _Agent Green Arrow_ and his idiotic, gorgeous face.

*************************

Predictably, the Queens get all of the credit for the mission, and it is like Felicity and Laurel were never even there. Laurel minds less, she just keeps going on about the smile that _Ollie_ gave her before he left but Felicity is seething by the time that they get to the party, where they will find out if Laurel’s father (and the only father Felicity has ever truly known) is going to be the next Director of the EASS. Hopefully he will be, Felicity has had her eye on a particular mission for a while now and she knows that her best bet at getting it for she and Laurel is to have their dad in charge. Moments after arriving, the family splinters off, going in search of their own friends and colleagues.

Felicity is left alone, Laurel having rushed off to look for _Ollie_ , and she just stands awkwardly at the side of the dance floor. This is really not her scene. She is not great at the whole social interaction thing, nor is she particularly adept at making friends, apparently, as she is all alone.

“Hey you.” A voice interrupts her inner musings, soft and deep and frustratingly attractive. Felicity is reluctant to look around, knowing exactly who that voice belongs to, but then she feels a large presence at her side and the heat of his body against her arm forces her to look up at him.

“Oliver.” She acknowledges begrudgingly, not trusting the soft smile on his face as he looks down at her. What does he want?

“Dance with me?” he asks in that charming way of his and Felicity cannot help the blush that rises in her cheeks. In her sixteen years of life, she has never once danced with a boy she was not related to. Not even Cooper, who had been her one and only boyfriend back when she was fourteen, had ever asked her to dance. Well, they had never really been anywhere that warranted dancing, to be honest.

That part of her that cannot help but be attracted to the just eighteen year old almost-man before her takes over her brain, “Okay.” She concedes, and she refuses to think about what the massive grin that spreads across his lips at her response means. She convinces herself that she only agreed to dance with him to find out what he wants with her and to give herself something to do besides standing awkwardly in a corner.

Her cheeks feel like they are burning with a bright flush as his hand rests at her waist and he starts to lead her in a practised dance, carefully holding her so that her embarrassed clumsiness does not ruin the moment. He says nothing, just swaying with her in his arms and the quietness makes her suspicious. Looking up at him with narrowed eyes, she cannot stop herself from blurting out, “Laurel was looking for you, you know.”

Cursing herself for ruining the moment when he looks down at her, slightly offended, Felicity listens to his affronted “So?” with no small degree of confusion.

“Well, wouldn’t you rather be dancing with her?” Felicity asks bluntly, “She’s a better dancer than me so I’m sure it would be better.”

“I’m quite content with my current dance partner, thanks.” He smiles, but Felicity does not understand why. She had not been joking.

“You look beautiful tonight,” Oliver remarks, letting his fingers drag along the short red dress that she and her mother had bought for the occasion.

Perplexed, Felicity tries to divert his attention, not understanding why he is complimenting her dress, “But Laurel’s the one you like, right?” she ignores his frown, “And I totally get why, she’s prettier and taller and she’s your age too, both of you are moving out from the Spy Kids program this year. Is that what this is? You’re trying to make her jealous? Or are you trying to butter me up so that I’ll convince her to request you as her partner next year so that you can get closer to her?”

She keeps rambling, hurt by the thoughts rushing through her head and both unaware that he is trying to interject and unwilling to listen to what he has to say, “Because I won’t do it! You’re arrogant and petty and cocky and my sister can do ten times better than you!” He is, she is telling the truth but she also knows that he is a good agent, and a good brother to Thea. He’s caring and protective and loyal and diligent in everything that he does. Laurel – anyone – would do well to have him for a partner and Felicity knows it. But the idea that he is just using her to get to Laurel is enough to have her hackles up and her offensive defensive instincts rising.

In the moment that she stops talking, Laurel bumps into them, “Ollie!” she exclaims, happy and simpering. Felicity never gets to see Oliver’s reaction to her words, because the second that Laurel says his nickname, he wipes his face clear of all emotion, smiling pleasantly at her and letting go of Felicity.

“Laurel, it’s good to see you.” He replies smoothly.

Laurel then notices Felicity, “Felicity! What are you doing with Ollie?”

“I was just asking her if she knew where you were, Laurel.” Oliver lies, tone cold.

“Oh!” Laurel is thrilled, “Well, no need to ask now! I’m here!”

“So you are.”

“Want to dance?” it is like Felicity is not even there, ignored by her sister and the boy who had, only moments before, been looking down at her like she was all that he could see.

“Sure.” And without a second glance at Felicity, Oliver leads Laurel away, holding her just like he had been holding Felicity. And if he looks a little stiffer with Laurel than he had with Felicity, it can only because Laurel is taller and he is holding himself up straighter to compensate, not because he was more relaxed dancing with Felicity.

“Is that Oliver Queen?” the rough, familiar voice of her father asks.

“Yes.” Felicity answers almost as stiffly as Oliver’s posture.

“Dancing with my eldest daughter?”

“That’s the one.” Felicity tries for levity.

Quentin looks down at her, “Want to have a little fun?” he grins.

It makes Felicity smile genuinely, mischief washing away a little of whatever just transpired, “I’d like nothing more.”

Quentin and Felicity approach the awkwardly dancing couple, Felicity hidden just behind Quentin, and then he begins to rigorously question Oliver, making the two demonstrate several kinds of dance until Oliver is practically straining to escape the situation. Felicity hides a grin as he excuses himself, but when she looks up, she thinks that Oliver may have just torn his eyes from her. But she must be wrong.

“Did you snitch on me to Dad?” Laurel hisses the moment that she and Felicity are alone.

“No, he just walked up next to me and spotted you, I didn’t say anything.”

“I don’t believe you.” Laurel rolls her eyes, “God, you’re so lame at parties, Felicity. Why can’t you just be cool? Even better, why couldn’t Dad have married someone with a daughter who wasn’t a huge nerd?”

Felicity hides the fact that Laurel’s words hit a deep, dark place in her that has the same regard for herself that Laurel has just demonstrated, “Well, sorry Laurel but we can’t all be airheads who couldn’t complete a mission without a million gadgets to do it for us.” She snaps back, regretting stooping to her big sister’s level immediately. But she acts as if the entire exchange has left her completely unbothered and then she stalks away, looking for somewhere to hide until she can sit down for dinner.

She loves Laurel, she does, they have been sisters since Felicity was seven and family is undeniable, but since they hit their teens, Laurel has focused more on boys and less on family. She resents the fact that Felicity is not the boy-oriented, ideal, badass little sister she had imagined. Laurel does not understand Felicity at all, and it means that, unless they’re on mission, it’s hard for them to get along anymore.

Wandering around in search for somewhere to fade into the background of the hubbub of the party, Felicity encounters a group of secret agents all moving in tandem from side to side. Recognising a couple of them, she crouches so that she can see through the gaps and, sure enough, there is Lyla.

“Lyla, hi!” she says, catching the young woman’s attention.

“Hello, Felicity.” She responds, a little miserably as she tries to dance inside the veritable army surrounding her.

“Did you get to talk to your father?”

Lyla sighs, “Yes. Not exactly the conversation I had hoped for though.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I should’ve known better than to try and get his attention by stealing the device. It’s not your fault.”

“But still.” Felicity pouts, shifting side to side to maintain her visual on the other girl, “You know what, this is too difficult.” She pulls out her badge, “Level Two! Break it up.” She orders the agents, and they immediately separate.

Able to actually look Lyla in the eyes, Felicity offers, “I can order him to talk to you again, if you want?”

Lyla smiles sadly, “Thank you, Felicity. That’s nice of you to offer, but I don’t think it will do any good. He just won’t listen. He’s too obsessed with his job and that device.”

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to have an absentee father.”

“Your dad’s-” Lyla is looking at Quentin.

“Oh no!” Felicity corrects, “No, Quentin is great. The best, really. But he’s my stepdad, until I was seven I didn’t have a dad because my biological father ran out on my mother and I when I was three. I don’t remember much, but I do remember the sense of loss and I remember what it was like to not have a dad for four years.”

“That sucks.” Lyla commiserates, “But I’m glad you have Quentin now, your birth dad doesn’t deserve you.”

Felicity struggles to know how to respond to that, her feelings about Noah are still very tangled up, and half of the time she thinks that it must have been her fault that he left. Lyla must pick up on this, because she changes the topic, “I was almost an Emerald Archer Spy Kid, you know?”

“You were?” it sufficiently distracts Felicity from thoughts about Noah Kuttler.

“Yep. I got through all of the testing, I did all the training. I even had a partner – a guy called John Diggle – and we were about to go on our first mission, but then my father got voted into office, and he pulled me out and put me into protective custody.” She gestures at the agents around her, “And now I’m almost too old to ever join the programme, and John has already aged out and is a regular EASS agent.”

“Oh, well maybe one day you can still join the EASS?” Felicity commiserates, “Hey, by the time your father’s term ends, I’ll have aged out too! You could be my partner if you wanted.”

“What about Laurel?”

“Well, Oliver’s sister is only eight, so she’s not going to age out for a long time and he’ll need a new partner when he does. I expect that he and Laurel will end up together, so when I catch up, I’ll be partner-less.”

Lyla grins, “Well then, I might just take you up on that offer, Felicity.”

Their conversation is cut off then as everybody is told to go to their seats for food. The time for the announcements to start has come. Lyla’s guards quickly surround her again and escort her to her seat by her father, almost completely obscuring her from view.

President Michaels steps up to the podium and, much to nobody’s surprise, begins to praise Oliver and Thea for a ‘job well done’ in recovering the stolen device. Like the person who stole it was not his own daughter, who was saved by Felicity and Laurel. What kind of man prioritises a device over his own daughter? Quentin would never do that to them. Felicity ignores the President’s words in favour of tucking in to the food before her. It earns her a dirty look from Laurel, who had been making goo-goo eyes at her precious _Ollie_ before the clatter of Felicity’s cutlery interrupted, but Felicity really could not care less.

Once the Queen praise-fest is over, Felicity starts to pay attention again. This is it, they are about to find out whether Quentin is the next Director. She notices that the President is reading off an autocue, which is displaying words several seconds before he says them. If she looks at that, she should be able to read the name of the new Director before the President ever announces it!

“I’m delighted to announce,” says President Michaels, “That the new Director of the EASS will be-” Felicity watches as, for a second, the letters _Q-U-E-N_ begin to appear on the screen, excitement builds in her and she prepares to clap for her father and then the screen flickers. It goes blank, and then when it comes back on, the _Q-U-E-N_ is gone, replaced with _R-O-B-E-R-T_ , “Robert Queen!”

Across the room, the Queens all erupt in applause, the rest of the room clapping politely along too. Laurel barely even looks disappointed, unlike the rest of her family (Donna is rubbing Quentin’s back in a consolatory manner) and is clapping almost as much as the Queens, trying to catch Oliver’s eye as she does so. He, of course, does not look over. He is focused on his father as the man walks up to the podium to make a speech.

There is little time for any of the news to sink in as, just as Robert begins to speak, all of the adults in the room begin to collapse. Everybody over the age of twenty-one.

“What’s happening?” Laurel panics, looking around.

Felicity evaluates the situation and comes to a quick conclusion when she spots that, whilst all of the Spy Kids are still awake, there are a few regular EASS agents up too, and all of them are ex-Spy Kids, just transferred to the adult programme, “It’s something in the champagne!” she yells, “Everybody who’s unconscious is over twenty-one – they’re all of drinking age!”

“But why?” asks Oliver, not looking directly at Felicity – or anywhere in her vicinity, really.

Felicity wracks her brains, “I don’t- oh! The Archer device! Is it here?” she looks to Lyla, and sees the young woman with that very device in hand. Before anybody can react, they hear the sounds of the waiters approaching, all of them marching towards the event room. Several quick-thinking kids rush to the doors. Trying to block out the enemy.

They somehow manage to break through, “Protect the device!” Felicity yells, knowing that the others will all listen to her. Regardless of the prodigal Queen siblings’ many accomplishments, the Lances are the original Spy Kids, and they have a certain level of notoriety that makes the others respect and listen to them.

The battle is insanity, the enemy clearly not having prepared for the craziness that is a bunch of children ranging from ages six to eighteen, all highly trained in combat. But they still are able to get past the chaos and steal the device from the unconscious President’s hands. Felicity may not be the most athletic of the recruits, her skills lying more within her mind, but she knows how to put up a good fight when she needs to, and she easily takes down the guy with the device.

“Felicity!” comes the voice of her older sister, “Felicity did you get the device?”

“Yeah, I got it!” Felicity yells back, showing Laurel.

“Okay, give it here, I’ll take care of it.”

Felicity hesitates. On the one hand, Laurel is the better fighter and more able to look after it. On the other, the Lance girl does not understand the device, and it is going to be safer in Felicity’s hands. Laurel gets impatient with Felicity and reaches to snatch the device from Felicity.

“Ollie!” Laurel yells, just as her hand closes around the device, but she does not grab it well enough and just as Oliver’s attention is drawn to the stepsisters, the device goes flying from Felicity’s hands, knocked away instead of snatched. The three of them all watch, horrified, as an enemy soldier plucks it from the floor and, before any of them can rush to get it back, there is a great rumbling and everything magnetic in the room is lifted upwards to some sort of giant flying magnet. That includes the henchmen, whose hats were magnetic. And the Archer device is pulled from the room right alongside them.

“Felicity!” Laurel yells, looking at Felicity with blame in her eyes. Oliver is looking at them both, expression unreadable, “How could you?” in that moment, the adults all start to awaken.

“The Archer device!” Oliver’s father shouts, having caught up with what must have happened, “Where is the Archer device?”

Laurel is too busy shouting at Felicity to answer, “Why didn’t you just give it to me? Your stupid butterfingers lost the Archer device.” Felicity looks around for support, for somebody who saw what happened to confirm that she did not mean to lose it, to say that it was Laurel who knocked it from her hand. But nobody says a word, not even Oliver Queen, who is looking at both of them blankly.

“Agent Overwatch,” Robert says, the disapproving voice amongst the disapproving glares around the room, “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

*************************

“I got fired.” Felicity informs Laurel miserably.

“Yes, I heard.” Her sister responds, impatient, “Well, what did you expect?” her voice is not quite nasty, but Felicity had been expecting at least a little more sympathy or guilt considering Laurel was the one who caused it to fall to the floor, and that Felicity did not tell anybody this in order to avoid her sister getting into trouble too, “You lost the Archer device, do you have any idea how important that thing was?”

“Funnily enough, Laurel, yes I did.” Felicity snaps, impatient. She and Laurel may not be as close as they used to be, but she is getting tired of her sister always taking everybody else’s side over hers. Of her sister always leaving her to deal with the messes made by both of them.

Laurel, for once, picks up on Felicity’s tone and she softens a little, “I’m sorry. I know you understand it.” Felicity had, after all, been the mind behind the device. She conceptualised it, she came up with the way that it could be pulled off. She did everything except making and testing the thing, that honour was taken away from her by somebody claiming that she was ‘too young to be trusted with something so important’. Felicity is still bitter over that. “Come on,” Laurel grins, for once looking like the big sister that Felicity remembers from when they were little, “Follow me, I know how to cheer you up.”

Felicity does not want to waste Laurel’s rare good mood, so she follows the other girl without questioning it, even though she can think of literally nothing that could cheer her up right now. Laurel takes them to the treehouse that their uncle had built for them, a large high-tech invention heavily modified by Felicity over the years. They have not used the space since Felicity was twelve and Laurel fourteen, just before Felicity’s uncool-ness became apparent to Laurel.

Sitting in their chairs, Laurel pulls up some files, “The Lian Yu mission?” Felicity asks, surprised, “Wasn’t that given to the Queens?”

“Yes,” Laurel confirms, “But I know you had your eye on it, and I’m definitely curious to see what’s going on there. You’re good at hacking, right?”

“You know I am.”

“So hack away, little sister.” Laurel smirks.

“Hack what?”

“Reinstate yourself!” Laurel tells her, “Reinstate yourself and then reassign the mission to us. I know you want to, and if we do a good enough job, maybe you’ll get a chance to get the device back and they’ll forgive you for losing it and let you stay.”

Felicity is tempted, “But don’t you like Oliver? Won’t he be unhappy?”

“Ollie will forgive me.” Laurel says, confident, “He just wants me to be happy, he’ll understand if I tell him it was all to cheer you up.”

Of course, Laurel wants the mission and Felicity has provided her the perfect excuse to take it from Oliver. Everybody knows that Thea is his only weakness, and that he would totally forgive anybody for doing something for their younger sibling, because he would do anything for Thea. But regardless of why Laurel is doing it, Felicity wants it to happen. She wants to keep this good rapport with Laurel going for as long as possible.

It only takes a few keystrokes to get into the EASS system (she did, after all, design most of it, though the adults in Computer Sciences would never want to admit to that). Hacking into the SpyBug Laurel had given her for Christmas two years prior, she makes her way into the room where the Queen siblings are being briefed.

Crackling, the feed comes in, “ _We tracked the ship to this island – Lian Yu – which is where several EASS ships have gone missing over the last few months. We can’t get any information from there, which is why we have been trying to, but now we know that the Archer has been taken there, and our only choice is to send the two of you in to recover whatever information you can. Do you accept this mission?_ ”

“ _We accept._ The deep voice of Oliver and the young tones of Thea chorus.

“We accept.” Felicity grins, “Whoops, oh dear, it looks like Agents Green Arrow and Speedy have been redirected to the Sahara Desert and _somehow_ , Agents Black Canary and Overwatch have been given the Lian Yu mission. Somebody should really look into how that happened.” And, looking over at Laurel, Felicity is delighted to see the older girl grinning back at her, both of them already filling with the excitement for the mission to come.

*************************

As they are awaiting their DragonSpy transport for their mission, Laurel and Felicity are confronted with Oliver and Thea, both of whom are expecting to be headed for the mysterious island of Lian Yu, though Felicity knows better. That knowledge makes her able to brush it off when Oliver rather rudely stares at her and says, “I thought you were fired.”

“I was.” She answers, rather haughtily, “But they realised the error in their ways and now I’m reinstated.”

“Are you two headed on a mission?” Thea asks, curious, before her big brother can say anything else, “We got the Lian Yu mission.”

“Yes,” Laurel says, eager as ever for Oliver’s approval, “Felicity and I have an extremely important mission. Very classified, too.” Felicity cannot help but smirk a little when Oliver just glances at Laurel, looking entirely disinterested.

“What’s that around your waist?” Thea asks, pointing at the heavy belt that Felicity is wearing.

Even though Felicity herself is the one who placed the gadgets around her waist, she still looks down to check, “The latest gear, all of the best gadgets for our mission.” In fairness, a lot of it is not gadgets at all, but various useful tools that will allow Felicity to disable any tech they come across and make whatever she needs herself, she knows that she can do that better than most gadgets can.

“Oh, well we’re _actually_ wearing the latest tech.” Thea and Oliver both roll up their sleeves as the younger Queen talks, revealing a sleek looking wrist gear, “Everything that you’re wearing around your waist is right here on our wrists.”

Felicity gapes at the tech, she had been in the room whilst a lot of it was being developed but as far as she is aware, it has not been released to the agents for general use yet, much of it still untested, “How did you get that?” Laurel asks, grabbing at Oliver’s hand and holding his wrist to her face. Felicity does not miss how Laurel’s fingers caress at Oliver’s skin a little, but she looks away. She does _not_ need to see that.

“It’s a prototype.” Oliver grins, wrist back in his own possession, “You know, there are always a couple of bugs, but we like to make sure that whatever we have is the best available.” Felicity refrains from commenting that she prefers to have the best available that actually works. Sure, most of that tech is probably up to scratch (she did, after all, invent half of it) but she knows better than to rely on tech that might not even work. Still, it smarts that the Queens have been given tech that she herself developed before even she has been able to try it out.

Thankfully, she is saved from having to seethe over it for any longer as Oliver and Thea’s transport arrives, and she is able to wave them off with the fakest of fake smiles and the satisfying knowledge that they are about to find themselves in the acrid climate of the Sahara many hours from now.

“What do you see in him?” Felicity asks her sister, ignoring the voice in her head saying _Besides his stunning good looks and his muscles that are way too huge for a guy who only just turned eighteen and his charm and how adorable he is with his sister and how much he loves her and the fact that he’s a secret agent out saving the world on a daily basis._ What she says aloud is, “He’s an arrogant prick. And I heard he’s messed around with loads of people and has a crippling fear of commitment.”

“I know.” Laurel admits, causing for Felicity’s mouth to gape at her incredulously, “He is all of those things, but you’ve seen how he is with Thea. He can be so sweet when he wants to and I just know that with the right girl, he’d learn how to settle down and be a better guy. I think that I’m that girl.”

“You do?”

“Yes, I know that I’m attractive enough to entice him and he can be himself with me because I’m an agent too and when we’re out of this stupid kid’s programme and he’s around me twenty-four seven, he’ll be forced to fall in love with me. And once that’s happened, I know I’m strong enough to change him into somebody worth being with when I’ve got the time to like that.”

Something about that does not sit right with Felicity. Love should not be about changing the other person to suit the image you have of them, it should be about loving them for who they are and, if needs be, making adjustments to yourself to better yourself. In Felicity’s opinion, if you have to change the other person to make it work, then it is not right. She has learnt that from her mother. Noah needed massive changing and was not willing to do that for Donna or Felicity, so he was too unsafe for Felicity to grow up around. Quentin was perfect for Donna and the two of them made minor adjustments to accommodate one another in their lives and it is working fantastically for them so far. But then again, neither Laurel nor Oliver have that understanding of love, and maybe they deserve one another if that’s what they want. Felicity will just have to come to terms with that.

Minutes after the two depart and Laurel stops talking, she and Felicity are able to board their own DragonSpy. It is massive and has all of the conveniences inside, including a handy little video message device. As Laurel busies herself doing whatever she does, Felicity takes the opportunity to make a call. Specifically, a call to one Lyla Michaels. Obviously their situations are vastly different, but if there is anybody who understands daddy issues, it’s Felicity and she thinks that she might be able to help a little.

“Hey Lyla,” she says when her new friend does not pick up, “It’s Felicity. I’ve been thinking about your situation with your father, and I thought that maybe you should approach him and just ask to talk. Tell him that it’s not very important now, but that it might be one day. Tell him that in his attempt to get his job done and make time for you, he’s missing out on the last few years of your childhood and you’re nearly a grown up now and if he doesn’t stop to make the time to spend with you now, he’ll never get the chance because you’re about to be a woman. It might not work, but I think that he might just need a reminder, just a little push to realise that he’s missing out on the most important thing in his life.

“Anyway, Laurel and I are headed out on mission right now. I can’t say much – classified and all of that, you know – but I don’t know when I’m going to get a chance to talk to you again, so this is farewell for now. Just send me a message when-” the ship lurches violently, jumping around and heading to the floor of the ocean.

“Felicity!” Laurel shouts, and Felicity turns around to see her sister holding on for dear life, the screen in front of her flickering between the background of the ocean and the heavily Oliver-dominated screensaver that Laurel must have been hiding from her.

“Oh no.” Felicity says, seeing the ocean floor approaching through the screen rapidly. She turns back to her call, saying frantically, “Emergency, gotta go!” and then the lights go out and the call cuts off as the power flickers off.

“All of the power is out.” Felicity says after several hours of inspecting of the craft and a good deal of tinkering in an attempt to get things online again to no avail, “This thing is just a hunk of metal now.”

“Nothing works?” Laurel asks, eyes wide.

“Nothing. We’re gonna have to float to the surface and hope we’re near land otherwise we’re gonna run out of oxygen soon.”

“Couldn’t we wait for somebody to find us?”

“Laurel, nothing works. And by nothing, I mean that includes the oxygen circulation, so we’ve been breathing stale air for at least six hours now and we probably don’t have long before the oxygen levels become dangerously low. We need to take the chance we have and rise to the surface before we’re too weak to do anything.”

Sufficiently frightened by Felicity words, Laurel helps her gather everything that they can carry to travel heavy. Who knows how long they will be floating out there? They need to take all of the fresh drink and supplies that they can.

“Okay. On count of three, we open the hatch and then hit this right here,” Felicity gestures at a button on Laurel’s suit, “And it’ll mechanically inflate and we’ll rise to the surface. Ready?” Laurel nods, “Okay, three, two, one… go.” The chamber begins to fill with water as the hatch opens and Laurel and Felicity both put on their breathers, securing their suits before they are out in the water and floating.

“What’s wrong with this suit?” Laurel shouts from Felicity’s side once they are both at the surface and engulfed by their massively expanded floatation suits. Felicity can actually kick her knees around in the body of hers, it has grown so large around her body, and she is suspended in it by the seal around her arms.

“I forgot, the inflation device is mechanical but the mechanism that stops it from inflating at the right point is electrical!” Felicity explains, blinking in the bright sunlight, “Thankfully, it looks like they ran out of air before we were completely engulfed.”

The movement of the water then brings Felicity around so that she is facing her sister and she cannot help but explode in guffaws at the sight of the usually prim and proper supermodel like young woman looking like Violet Beauregarde after she chewed the gum, except if the pie flavour had been lemon rather than blueberry.

“What?” Laurel snaps, a rare angry flush colouring her cheeks, “What is there to laugh about? We’re stuck in the middle of the ocean and we can’t even move!” Laurel has a point and it sobers Felicity.

“Well…” she searches her mind for a solution, “If we just let the tide take us, we should hit land eventually. And if we kick our legs in the general direction that we’re going, hopefully that’ll get us going more. Here,” With great effort, Felicity manages to move her arm just enough to throw over the bag attached by rope to her belt, “Grab on to this and that should help us to not get separated.” Looking as if she would rather be in the Sahara desert surrounded by camel excrement with the Queen siblings than here with Felicity, Laurel glowers but bites down on the bag so that she can keep close to her sister as they float through the ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, yeah. This went way out of hand. it's like 3 times longer than intended so I decided to split it into 2 chapters, hence the lazy chapter titling. I'll post chapter 2 next week.


	2. Island of Lian Yu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spies all arrive on Lian Yu and things get crazy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think there's more dialogue in this one? Pretty sure it's enough.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy my attempt to squeeze a movie into under 16k of fic.

**Chapter Two: Island of Lian Yu**

Several hours later, Felicity sees something that makes her heart leap, “Look! Laurel! Land!” sure enough, there in the distance is a small island. With any luck, it is Lian Yu, “Come on! Kick!” both of them swivel their whole bodies in a rough approximation of a kick, slowly making their way to the island.

“Where even are we though, Felicity?” Laurel complains as they go, “Who could possibly find us? We’re stuck here forever, and you know it!” Felicity has no time to respond because, with a great snapping sound, the suits engulfing she and Laurel burst open, sending them soaring to the island at break neck speed, suits deflating around them and spitting out air that propels them forwards.

Spluttering, Felicity crawls ashore, “We made it!” she says, “I think we’re here, Laurel!”

“Great. Here with no hope of escape. Just perfect.”

Ignoring Laurel’s pessimism, Felicity continues, “What first? Make our shelter or explore the island?”

“You do what you want. I’ll be here on the beach, trying to forget the last few hours.”

Optimism not faltering for a second, Felicity declares, “Shelter it is.”

She finds a nice spot and then withdraws something from the packs she and Laurel have held on to, throwing it to the floor. Nothing happens. She throws two more to the floor and gets the same results. Seeing Laurel’s annoyed eyebrow raise, she tries to explain, “That was supposed to be an instant shelter. They were supposed to be an instant campfire and food processor but none of them worked. There must be some sort of electromagnetic field interfering with all technology here. Strange.”

“I find it less strange and more disturbing.” Laurel hisses, “If none of this stuff works, where are you expecting us to sleep? How do you expect us to stay warm? How are we supposed to eat if we can’t use any of the instant packets?”

Growing annoyed by how little help Laurel is offering, and the tone that makes it feel like Laurel is blaming Felicity for the misfortune that has befallen them, she snaps back, “Oh, I don’t know Laurel, maybe use some of that training we were given to build a shelter and fire manually? Maybe hunt for food? Maybe eat one of the pre-made bars in our packs? But I would suggest doing something other than standing here and complaining, because that’s unlikely to get either of us anything!”

“Fine.” Laurel huffs, stalking off.

Building the shelter gives Felicity enough time to calm down, and by the time it is done and she and Laurel have protein bars in hand and belly, she is level headed enough to suggest that they go looking for anything suspicious around the island. Laurel just about agrees. Felicity leads the way, drowning out Laurel’s constant complaining about how much her feet hurt and how she just wants to sleep, _blah, blah, blah_ , by muttering her thoughts out loud to herself. And as she has a lot of thoughts, it provides a fairly constant stream of white noise to cover up Laurel’s whines.

It is a gruelling day, but eventually they come to be at the base of the mountain central to the island. “I say we go check it out.” Felicity says, receiving just a scowl from Laurel, “I’d imagine we could see the whole island up there, we might be able to spot something.”

“We’d better spot a boat so that I can get out of here.” Laurel says, and Felicity cannot tell whether she is supposed to hear it or not.

At the top, they are met with a bubbling pit of lava, and the sight of a beautiful forest environment, “I’m going to check it out.” Laurel says, leaning over the side of the volcano.

Felicity sees it happening before it does, “LAUREL! NO!” she lunges forwards, just managing to grab hold of her sister’s hand as the other girl goes sliding down into the heart of the volcano. It feels like her arm has been yanked from its socket, but she manages to hold on tight. “I’m slipping!” she whimpers, and then she is falling and jerking to a stop, held up only by the wire rope of the grappling hook she has deployed.

  
“I’ll climb up.” Laurel hoists herself up Felicity’s body, getting a grip around her, “Oh no.” she says ominously, “Felicity!” _SNAP!_ The two of them are falling, reaching terminal velocity and then they keep going and going and going.

*************************

Hours pass. Laurel manages to find the time to eat another protein bar as they fall, but they just keep falling and Felicity cannot work it out.

“How long have we been falling?” she asks Laurel.

“I don’t know, I don’t have a watch.”

“Well how long do you think?”

“Maybe… five hours now? It feels like five hours.” It does feel like it has been five hours, and Felicity’s internal clock is usually rather reliable. But if it has been five hours, that makes no sense whatsoever. Human terminal velocity is usually about a hundred and ninety kilometres an hour. The Earth’s crust is only about eight hundred kilometres, give or take and falling for five hours would have she and Laurel well into the heat of the magma filled mantle. They should, by all rights, be dead. Especially as this is a volcano, and they could see the lava from the top.

  
“Something strange is happening here.” She muses.

“You don’t say.” Laurel rolls her eyes. Just as they speak, they come to an abrupt halt, their entire surroundings changing.

“What? What’s happening?” Looking down, Felicity can see what looks like a miniature version of the island beneath her, and a large cave all around. She can see the sky again through a gap at the top of the cave, which must be the supposed opening to the volcano that they had fallen through.

“There!” Laurel points behind a rock, where a white coat swishes.

“Come out and identify yourself!” Felicity demands, readying herself for a fight.

A tall guy, somewhere between his early and mid-twenties, broken glasses and scruffy lab clothes comes running out with his hands up, “Don’t attack, don’t attack!” he begs, “My name is Ray Palmer! I’m the only human inhabitant of this island!”

“What are you doing here? What do you know? Is this island Lian Yu?” Laurel demands, the brilliant agent in her snapping back into place and replacing the whiny girl from the last few hours.

“Y-yes! This is Lian Yu! I came here for some peace and quiet a few years ago to work on my projects, it belongs to me, you see, but everything went wrong!”

“You’re going to tell us everything that you know.” Felicity orders.

“Okay, but first, let’s get somewhere safe.” He says, looking nervously at the opening above.

The three of them walk, Ray in the lead, as he begins to explain. “You weren’t really falling. It was an illusion, I funnelled wind up so you felt like you were falling and stayed aloft – like in those indoor skydiving places – and I closed the volcano opening to make it seem like you’d fallen so far you couldn’t see it anymore and I made you think you were still falling. I have to. Can’t be too careful about who I let in here.” Laurel and Felicity exchange a suspicious look at this.

They enter a space that looks like some weird cross between a home and a laboratory and Ray excitedly rushes around, “I’ve been developing a serum. Shrinking serum! I designed it to make people smaller at will, I had plans to sell it to the EASS or someone, I’m assuming that you’re with the EASS Spy Kid programme?” they nod, “Anyway, I started off by testing it on animals and it worked perfectly, see?” he shows them a miniature zoo, “Ray’s Miniature Zoo!” he proudly proclaims. But he is cut off by a squeal from Felicity.

“Ah!” she leaps back, bumping into Laurel, “Kangaroo!” indeed, there is a tiny kangaroo hopping from the zoo, a joey secured in its pouch.

Laurel laughs, “Felicity, it’s just a tiny little kangaroo.” She giggles, “I don’t get your fear of the big ones, how can you possibly be scared of that tiny thing?”

“They’re creepy!” Felicity hisses, leaning back from her sister who is holding out the shifty little thing teasingly, “I don’t trust them!” Laurel laughs, but puts it back in the zoo and out of sight.

“Continue.” Laurel instructs Ray.

“Well…” He frowns at the sisters, but then falls back into his story, “I figured, why let them go to waste? They’re still animals and this could have commercial use too, kids would go nuts for this sort of stuff. Imagine… kids could have a zoo right there in their bedrooms! I could make a fortune.

“Anyway, after I managed to find the more commercial uses for it, I started trying to breed the miniature creatures. Only I… uh… _accidentally_ ended up cross breeding them. Ray’s Miniature Zoo Two.” He shows them another one, this time filled with all sorts of strange creatures, “Slizards, spidermonkeys, flying pigs, kangadillos,” Felicity lets out a little whimper at that one, “You name it, I’ve got them,” he does, the little things are crawling all over the place, and making Felicity yelp and lean backwards again when she sees a kangaroo with an armadillo shell hop out, “But then I went back to my original plan after that, the mixed beasts are a little too dangerous, and whilst I know I can do well with them, I didn’t want to abandon my original plans.

“But then I realised there is a flaw. I’d figured out how to shrink living beings, but I hadn’t worked out how to make them regrow and, really, the EASS will want nothing to do with this if they can’t get their agents back to a normal size after. So I made a growing solution but… I had an accident. I spilled it in one of my zoos and now the whole island is filled with my cross creatures and they’re all trying to kill me so I’m stuck in here.” He frowns, upset by the notion.

  
“Maybe they just want to be your friend.” Felicity says, a spidermonkey already climbing its way into her hand and patting her comfortingly when he sees her cringe away from the kangadillo.

“No. They’re definitely trying to kill me.” Ray insists.

“Okay,” Felicity brushes past that, disbelieving but unwilling to waste more time, “But what about the EASS? Did you ever contact them when you’d sorted the shrinking and growing solutions?”

“Oh, yes. I talked to this agent named Robert. He came and looked at my animals with a few friends but, strangest thing, he barely even cared about my invention! Instead, he was just interested in my cloaker.”

“Cloaker?” Laurel asks.

“Yes. Well, like I said, when I came here I wanted some peace and quiet and so I developed a device that switches off all technology around the island! It has a buffer of a few miles and it makes the island invisible to modern mapping, so until I invited Robert here, I was left completely alone.”

“What did Robert want with the device?”

“Oh, he said they’d got some new technology – I don’t know, it was called Arrow or something – but he said it could really benefit from my cloaker. He’s supposed to be coming here any day now, actually, to add my technology to the device so that it can be complete.”

Laurel and Felicity look at each other, both thinking along the same lines, “Do you mean Robert Queen and the Archer device?” Felicity hastens to ask.

“Oh yes! Archer! That was it.” Ray replies, busy playing with a miniature flying pig.

“That’s my device! He’s going to add a cloaking device to Archer and then… oh, god. It’ll be invincible! Imagine if Archer could turn off all technology everywhere and become the only thing… It could track everything without detection, it would be so dangerous and this was definitely not in the Archer files! Queen is doing this under the radar, Laurel, he’s planning something big and it can’t be good”

“But… he’s Ollie’s dad.” Laurel says, frowning.

And as much as Felicity thinks that Oliver is an arse, she agrees that he is not a bad guy. He is definitely not the taking over the world type but, “We’re not all our fathers, Laurel.” She reminds her stepsister, voice empty of emotion.

This is one of the only things that Laurel has always been consistently sympathetic to Felicity about, “Of course,” she says, resting a hand on Felicity’s shoulder, “I’m sorry, I forgot. But… it’s just hard to imagine that Ollie’s dad would do this. I mean… he’s the director of the EASS, Felicity, why would he?”

“Even the director of the EASS can’t do everything, Laurel. And it looks like Robert wants to do one of the things that he shouldn’t.”

Ray then shows them how the miniature crossed animals reflect their larger counterparts on the miniature island, his little observation deck. “Oh, look!” he says, “There’s two slizards attacking a young man and a little girl!”

“Oliver and Thea!” Felicity exclaims, “We have to go save them!”

“ _You_ want to save Ollie?”

“Just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean I’m about to leave him to die, Laurel. He’s still an Emerald Archer agent and Thea is still a good kid, even if she’s a bit of a snob.

They save the others, receiving little thanks and then explain the situation when they’re back at Ray’s lab. Unsurprisingly, the Queens are unwilling to believe that their father is trying to take over the world.

“I know you don’t want to believe it, but your father is doing a bad thing, and you can’t deny the evidence.” Felicity says calmly.

“Ollie?” Thea looks up at her brother, almost looking scares. It make’s Oliver’s eyes harden, and he grabs his baby sister’s hand before glaring at Felicity.

“Whatever he’s doing, I’m sure he has a good reason for it.” He says, both assuring his sister and reprimanding the others, “And family is the most important thing, so I have to trust him.”

“You’d side with him no matter what?” Felicity asks, her chest aching but she does not know why.

“My father will be doing whatever it takes to be the best spy. Even if that means he has to do bad things for good reasons, he can’t get attached to anything. It’s chapter one of the _How to be a Spy_ : never form attachments. And my dad is an amazing spy, so he won’t let attachments stop him from doing what has to be done.”

“And you?” she finds herself asking, “Do you form attachments?”

“I’m a good spy.” Is the last thing that he says.

And then they leave, shooting glares at Felicity and Laurel. When they are gone, it is Laurel who glares at Felicity as if it is her fault that Oliver’s dad is trying to take over the world and Felicity worked it out and had to tell Oliver, making him mad at them.

Ignoring her sister and the pain in her chest and the urge to run out and call Oliver and Thea back, Felicity turns back to Ray, “Ray, is the device here on Lian Yu right now?” she asks.

“Yes.” He replies.

“I’m going to need you to tell me how to get to it.”

“I laid a lot of booby traps. It won’t be easy.” He warns.

“Tell me everything I need to know.”

*************************

Map in hand, Laurel and Felicity race away on the magnetic racers, rushing to the device. Felicity realises that the Archer device stolen from the party had been a prototype – her prototype – and that the real danger is on the island. The new device must have replaced Ray’s cloaker and will be sat at the top of the tower and she and Laurel need to get to it before the Queens and their dad do. But halfway there, they are attacked by slizards and fall from their magnets, hitting the floor.

Felicity sees Oliver and Thea fly past. They must have followed to try and cut she and Laurel off. Well, at least they do not have a map.

The two girls end up in a strange temple of sorts, it is filled with treasures of all kinds. Felicity takes interest in several heavy looking tomes within a wooden crate, great chests of knowledge. She is about to pick one up when she notices the hands holding it. A skeleton, bony fingers gripped around the wood as if it is the most precious thing in the world to them. Whoever this was, they died trying to keep or take this thing and, based on the fact that the chest is still there and the person holding it is now dead, Felicity would be willing to wager that it is the latter. She has a bad feeling about this place, and withdraws her hand. Whatever is in those books, she will never know.

Behind her, Laurel is grasping at a bejewelled necklace, chain stretched taut between the hands of two eternally warring dead men. “Laurel!” Felicity shouts, “Leave it, we can’t take anything!” Laurel scowls, but looking at the skeletons, she must understand where Felicity is coming from because she drops the necklace and follows her younger sister from the room.

Emerging from the temple, Felicity looks straight ahead, “Look! It’s the tower!” a great obelisk is pointing at the sky not that far away.

“Felicity!” Laurel calls, and Felicity looks around to see her sister looking not at the tower, but at a legion of approaching skeletons. The dead from the temple.

“What did you do?” Felicity yells, “Did you take something? You did, didn’t you?”

“No.” Laurel denies, but Felicity sees her hand clench around something. Presumably that necklace.

They battle the skeletons, not making much headway as the enemy is already dead, “Laurel! Give it back to them! If you don’t we’ll die.”

Laurel’s shoulders slump and she stretches out her hand, opening it and offering the necklace to the skeletons. Just before Felicity can see the skeletons take it back, before she can know whether they will leave her and Laurel alone once the treasure is returned, she falls.

Her stomach swoops out of her body, left atop the cliff, and Felicity is sure that this is the end. But then her leg is yanked upwards and she is flying, flying not falling. She looks around, thinking that Laurel has caught her, but instead she sees her sister vanishing in the distance, and the great expanses of the island forest far below her. Dangerously far below.

_This_. This is Felicity’s nightmare. The only way that it could be worse would be if the creature holding her was a flying kangaroo rather than a flying pig. Heights _and_ kangaroos? She would be doomed.

She has no idea how long she is in the air for, but eventually she is falling again. Right into a nest. The pig’s, she assumes. She looks around, trying to work out what is happening and then she is faced with none other than Thea Queen.

“Thea?” she asks, surprised.

“Pig got you too, did it?” the little girl says miserably.

“Yeah. Your brother is going to be out of his mind worrying about you.”

“I know. But he’ll be okay.” Felicity is not so sure about that. She says as much. “I know he’s super overprotective of me,” says Thea, “But he knows that I’m a good agent and I know I don’t have as much experience as any of you guys but I’ve been training since I was two and I can handle myself and Ollie knows that.”

Felicity huffs, “He didn’t seem to know that on the Vertigo mission.” The Vertigo mission had been a year prior, before Felicity knew how awful Oliver Queen truly is. Felicity and Laurel had been forced to team up with the Queens and, naturally, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong had.

“You mean when Laurel and I got kidnapped and drugged and he went out of his mind to save us?”

“Yeah, that.” Felicity still remembers it, clear as day. She had barely known Oliver back then, but when Thea and Laurel were taken, he had just about lost his mind. He had fought to get them back with a violence that Felicity had never before seen. The two of them had been stuck together, trying to get their siblings back, and the love that Oliver had for his sister and the kindness with which he had treated Felicity, trusting her to do her part of the mission and help him save Thea, had completely bamboozled her. She had been drawn to him like she had never been drawn to another before, and she thought that he felt the same. She thought that they had something, they had grown so close over those few weeks.

Then they got back and instead of asking Felicity out, he flirted with Laurel and ignored her, and she realised that he only wanted her to like him to get on her good side and get close to Laurel. From then on, she vowed to never fall for his charm again, and even though he had tried to fool her several times since, she never let him get too far. She knew his game.

“Well obviously then he was more concerned. I was drugged, how was I supposed to get myself out when I was drugged? But this time I’m fine and he knows it. So, sure, he’ll be focused on finding me again, but he knows I can handle myself.” Thea interrupts her musings about the past.

“Oh. Well, we’d best work on getting out of here then, hadn’t we?”

“He has a crush on you, you know?” Thea says, matter of fact.

Felicity scoffs, “I think you’re mixing me and my sister up.”

“No, he doesn’t like Laurel. He thinks she’s a suck up and kinda mean. He thinks you’re the nicest girl ever and he’s been pining over you for a year.”

“Thea, I know your brother doesn’t like me. He’s always derogatory to me and he flirts with my sister constantly.”

“Only because he’s trying to make you jealous.” Thea informs her, “During the Vertigo mission, he fell head over heels for you and you’re most of what he talks about now. Tommy is fed up with it. He keeps telling Ollie to ask you out, but Ollie always says you hate him and shoot him down every time he tries to talk. Why do you hate him, why don’t you let him talk to you?”

“I- _he’s_ always mean to _me_!” she yells, “After Vertigo, he could’ve asked me out but instead he went and flirted with my sister. He plays around with other girls all the time. At the party, he stopped dancing with me the second that Laurel arrived and pretended like he’d never asked me to dance and danced with her instead. Earlier when I told you guys about your dad he told me he doesn’t form attachments and will side with your dad no matter what!”

“Well,” says Thea with the manner of somebody thrice her age acting as if the matter is all very simple, “I’m not saying that he’s the smartest guy around, or that his methods have been particularly effective, but all of that is easily explained. After Vertigo, he wasn’t flirting with Laurel, he was trying to be nice to her and make friends even though he doesn’t like her because he knows she’s your sister and wanted to impress you. When he flirts with other girls in front of you, it’s to make you jealous. And sure, he has a bit of a colourful past, but people change and he thinks that you’re the right person for him to find his true self with. As for the party, he was trying to dance with you and compliment you but from what I hear, you spent the whole time talking about Laurel and then insulting my brother so, yeah, he reacted badly to your rejection and tried to get his own back at you. Like I say, he’s not exactly mature, but he’s definitely into you.”

“How could you _possibly_ know all of this?”

“I’m a spy and my favourite target is my big brother, especially when he’s hanging out with his best friend.” Thea smirks, “So why do you keep insulting my brother?”

“Because I thought he hated me,” Felicity responds miserably, “I thought he was just using me to get to Laurel and that hurt.” She has never even admitted that to herself, let alone another person.

“Well maybe if you stopped pushing him away to protect yourself, you’d find something really good with him.”

“You’re eight, how do you manage to know so much about all of this?” Thea just shrugs, “How can you be this perceptive about relationships and yet still side with your father?” Felicity mutters, not quite meaning to do so out loud.

Thea stiffens, “It’s not that I don’t believe you.” She whispers, “I know my dad’s done some bad stuff. I know he’s not perfect. But… he’s still my dad. That’s still important to me, I still love him in spite of everything.”

“My father is a cybercriminal.” Felicity tells the little girl, “No, not Quentin, he’s my stepfather. Laurel’s my stepsister. Quentin has been my dad since I was seven years old and I wouldn’t change that for the world, but my biological father raised me – or failed to raise me, more accurately – until I was three years old. He now features on an EASS wanted list.” Thea is gaping at Felicity, obviously not having expected this, “He was always a terrible father, but he did at least love me and he gave me my affinity for computers. Point being, my father is one of the worst people out there and I still love him even though I also hate him, so I understand where you’re coming from. But just because I love my father doesn’t mean I’d ever help him with any of his schemes. It doesn’t mean I’d ever let him get away with hurting people just because he’s my dad. If it came to it, I’d be the one to stop him if I had to.

“Blood and family are important things, but it’s the choices that we make that are more important. We can choose to follow in our parents’ footsteps, or we can choose to walk the opposite path. We can choose to accept the family we were given at birth or to make our own, and the family we choose may include some of those we were given, but it can include others too. We can choose to do what is right or to let something bad happen. Where we come from is important, but only for as long as we choose to let that define us.”

Thea says nothing, just looking at Felicity contemplatively, her mind whirring almost visibly. Suddenly, the flying pig makes another appearance, and Felicity sees her chance, “Thea, jump!” she yells, and then the two of them are falling to the earth, Felicity trying her hardest to not vomit as she watches it draw closer and closer. This trip has involved far too many heights for her taste.

*************************

They race back to the clifftop, where they find Laurel riding a kangadillo and Oliver clinging to a slizard, the two engaged in battle. All around them is a swarm of skeletons, but they are no longer fighting Laurel, they are cheering on the battle. Felicity cannot work out what they are doing, but she thinks she hears Oliver yell out, “Give me the map!” and runs even faster.

“Stop fighting!” she tells the two of them, and somehow they both actually listen to her, and even though Thea’s words are still ringing in her head and making her question her every interaction with Oliver Queen, Laurel is still her sister. She does not hesitate to rush up to Oliver and punch him in the face, making him back away from Laurel and fall to the floor.

It gives her an immense sense of satisfaction, like all of the wrongs he has done her over the last year (even if they were done with good intentions as Thea claims) have been righted in that one blow. That will teach him to try and attract her attention by flirting with her sister and insulting her! Thea, for her part, does not seem bothered in the slightest, and shrugs at Felicity as if to say, ‘ _Okay, sure, he deserved that one. But you should still have a good think about what I said_ ’ _._

“Okay,” Felicity notices how exhausted she is, but pushes on. It has been a far too long day, “Laurel, we need to get to the Archer before Robert does, come on.”

“You punched Ollie!” Laurel protests.

“He was attacking you and he deserved it.” Felicity side eyes Oliver, and sees that he is starting to get back up, “Now please get off of that awful creature and come with me.” Laurel clambers off the kangadillo and it hops away, making Felicity shiver with revulsion.

The two leave the Queens in the dust, Thea still busy helping Oliver up and consoling him after Felicity’s attack. He looks at her a little betrayed, but she just hopes he understands how she has felt watching him parade around after everything that they went through together during the Vertigo mission. She thinks that she must imagine hearing Thea tell him, “She thought you were flirting with Laurel, you know?”

*************************

When Laurel and Felicity finally climb their way to the top of the tower, they are confronted with a huge contraption. It is Archer, but different. Bigger. It floats in the centre of a triad of magnets, some sort of stabilising agents that must be involved with the cloaker developed by Ray that has modified the device Felicity designed and her team fine-tuned. Reading the instructions Ray gave them, Felicity tries to work out how to disable the thing without activating it. Unfortunately, Laurel, ever the impulsive sister, is already wrapping her hand around the stabilisers and removing them.

“Laurel no!” Felicity yells, too late, “You idiot!” she ignores the angry looks she receives at that particular comment, “If you remove it from the stabilisers without deactivating it, that doesn’t stop the device! It just means that it stops being contained to the island, if I can’t fix this, the entire world will be under a blackout in minutes! People will die, Laurel!”

Laurel hands over the device like it is a bomb, “Deactivate it then!” she shouts back at Felicity, anxiously watching on as the younger sister flutters around both the device and the stabiliser, trying to stop its power from surging and wiping out all technology in the world. Including aeroplanes and hospital equipment and traffic lights and a thousand other life saving devices that work every day to keep people safe.

“Boom!” Felicity pumps her fist in the air as is her custom, “I got it!” the stabiliser is now working as a dampener, preventing Archer from taking over.

“Excellent.” Comes an unfamiliar voice, sounding far too cheerful for somebody who was almost just stood in the epicentre of a disaster that could have ended the world as they know it, “Now it’s time for you to hand it over.” Both Felicity and Laurel turn. They are confronted by a gang of henchmen, several EASS agents, Ray Palmer being held threateningly by several of them and, most importantly, Robert Queen and his two children.

Oliver has an unreadable expression, Felicity assumes that he is practising his policy of forming no attachments to ‘ _persons, objects and/or situations_ ’ just that that stupid guide says. Thea will not look at Felicity, and instead has her eyes on her dad. Robert, conversely, cannot take his eyes away from Felicity. Or, more specifically, the device in her hand, still with her favourite portable screwdriver poised over it.

“Come along, Agent Overwatch, hand it over.” Robert cajoles.

“What do you plan to do with it if I do?” Felicity asks, wary. Part of her wants to give Robert the benefit of the doubt, wants to be wrong, for Thea’s sake if nobody else’s. The other part would not trust Robert Queen as far as she could throw him, and that would not be far as she is a tiny sixteen year old girl and he is a large middle aged man.

“I just want the same as you, Felicity.” Robert tries to persuade her, “I just want what’s best for the world.”

“Thing is, Director Queen, I get the impression that there’s a discrepancy between what you think is best for the world and what I think is best. And I get a feeling that most ethicists would side with me in this instance.”

Her words make the smile drop from Robert’s face, a scowl replacing it, “If you won’t hand it over willingly, Felicity, I’ll get Malcolm here to make you.” He gestures to the man clad all in black beside him. Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer and the father to Oliver’s best friend. Malcolm is one of the most notorious members of the EASS, and is rumoured to have a kill list longer than most agents’ mission records.

Felicity sets her jaw, “No, no, I think you’ll have to take it from me by force.”

“God, Felicity.” Laurel snipes, “Just give him the stupid device!”

“Laurel?” Felicity turns to her sister, betrayed, “What do you mean?”

“He’s our boss, Felicity! And he’s Ollie’s dad. If he says he’s just doing what’s best, who are we to question that? He knows what he’s doing!”

“Laurel, you know that he doesn’t intend to do what’s right, you know that.” The hard look in Laurel’s eye does not soften, and Felicity sneers at her sister, “Tell the truth, Laurel, are you siding with them because you actually believe what they’re saying, or is it because you want to impress Oliver?” Laurel gives no answer, “Thought so.”

Felicity turns to Oliver and Thea, “And you two? Do you genuinely believe that your father has good intentions or are you just standing beside him because he’s your father?” Neither of the siblings move. Felicity feels like her entire world is crumbling around her. She had thought that most people were good, and a few were the exception. Now she is learning that the people she has always thought to be generally good, regardless of their flaws, are just as selfish and ignorant and power hungry as all of the people they fight to stop.

The stunning realisation is enough to put her off her guard for just long enough that Laurel is able to snatch Archer from Felicity’s hand, “Laurel, no!” Felicity yells, but she hesitates. She does not want to attack her sister, her partner. But she knows that she has to.

“It has to be done, Felicity.”

Felicity begins to gather herself for her assault as Laurel walks up to Robert, device in hand and offered out to him, “Here you go, Director Queen.” Laurel says, but she is looking at Oliver as she does so, seeking his approval. He does not notice. His eyes are on Felicity.

“Thank you, Agent Black Canary,” Robert smiles, “I’ll see to it that you’re rewarded for your bravery here today.

And then, in the split second before Robert’s fingers can brush against Archer, there is a tiny ball of movement, so fast that only somebody who had been expecting it could truly see what happened. Felicity finally understands where Thea gets her codename, Speedy, from. It only takes her a few milliseconds after Thea’s movement to process what has happened, which is far faster than anybody else. Thea had leapt forwards, grabbing Archer and rolling to Felicity’s side where she threw the device from the tower. And there, flying off into the sunset, is the flying pig. Device securely in its grasp.

Thea positions herself defensively in front of Felicity. Felicity’s first instinct is to move forwards and protectively hide the little girl behind her body, but she realises that Robert will never attack his daughter, and that both of them are safer as long as Thea’s relationship with their enemy is a factor in play.

“Thea?” Robert asks, both shocked and angry, “What was that?”

“That was me doing the right thing.” Thea growls, “You may be my father, and I’ll always love you because of that, but as a very smart person recently reminded me, I’m not you. I can make my own decisions and today I decided to stop you from trying to take over the world with Malcolm again.”

The ‘again’ has Felicity’s mind racing, the part that hates mysteries wanting to unravel that immediately, but she knows that there is no time for that, not with a dozen trained agents standing off against Felicity and an (admittedly formidable) eight year old. “You’re going to be in a lot of trouble for this, Thea.” Robert growls, “But first we need to get that device back. Oliver! Track that pig, we have to find out where it’s going.”

And as the little spring of hope that Thea’s earlier words had created is squashed by Oliver’s next words, she pretends like she had expected them all along, “Yes, father.” Laurel, Robert and all of the agents and henchmen fall in step behind the young man, corralling both Thea and Felicity alongside Ray.

*************************

They are halfway towards the nest when Felicity hears a beeping coming from her wrist, “My watch!” she exclaims, before quieting herself when it draws attention from the couple of escorts surrounding them. “Thea,” she whispers, quieter this time, as she subtly slows her pace to put space between the three of them with their escort and the people heading up the group with Oliver, “Thea, my watch!”

“What about your watch?” Thea hisses back.

“It’s working.” After a beat, understanding dawns on Thea.

“But I thought technology didn’t work here.”

“It didn’t when Ray’s cloaker was on, but they hooked it up to my Archer device and when I disabled that I must have disabled the cloaker too!”

Thea stops walking, looking up at Felicity, “So… does that mean…?”

“All our tech is back on?” Felicity grins, “Yes, Thea, that happens to be exactly what it means.”

A mischievous smirk appears on Thea’s lips, “Oh, excellent.” And, without saying a word, the two girls turn back to back, Ray safe between them as they round on their captors and fight back. They have managed to slow themselves enough that there are only half a dozen guards left, the others having sped too far away with Robert, Oliver and Laurel to hear the commotion, and Thea and Felicity make quick work of them.

“Enjoy your island, Ray,” Felicity smiles at the man, “Make the most of it, not everybody has a private island with exotic wildlife to enjoy all for themselves!” and with that, she activates her flight boots, Thea hot on her heels and they fly to the pig’s nest, both of them remembering exactly where it is.

Felicity grabs Archer, nodding to Thea to confirm her acquisition, “Thea, back to the beach!” she exclaims, “We might be able to get a signal out now!” They race back to the beach, not spotting Robert and his posse even once. There the instant shelter Felicity had tried to activate earlier is still lying uselessly on the sand, so she picks it up and reactivates it, grinning when the tent pops up.

Just as she is about to send out an SOS to the EASS with details of Robert’s betrayal, there is a commotion outside. Both she and Thea are immediately on the alert, ready to defend Archer no matter what, but it is not Thea’s father who pokes his head into the tent. It is Felicity’s.

  
“Dad!” she exclaims, looking into the face of Quentin Lance and being reminded that Laurel just betrayed them, “What’re you doing here?”

“We came here to find you, baby girl!” comes the voice of Donna Smoak. Thea blinks at Donna’s exuberance as the brightly dressed woman rushes forwards to give Felicity a big hug.

“But how did you find us?”

“Ah, that would be me.” Says another voice, an older one.

“Bubbe?” Felicity exits the tent and is faced with her grandmother, her mother’s only surviving parent.

“Remember what I gave you for your seventh birthday, Felicity?” Bubbe Smoak asks.

“My star necklace?” Felicity’s hand covers where the Star of David rests against her chest under her clothes.

Bubbe smiles, “As long as you always have that on you,” she promises, “I will always be able to find you.” Felicity is both touched and gripped with an urge to yell at her grandmother for bugging her without permission.

Thea exits the tent behind Felicity, “And who might this be?” Bubbe says kindly.

“This is Thea Queen, Bubbe.”

“Where’s Laurel?” Quentin asks, eyes wild, “Where’s my daughter?”

“My father is trying to take over the world again using the Archer device and Laurel sided with him because she wanted to impress Ollie because she has a crush on him – which totally won’t work by the way because Ollie likes Felicity – and now they’re chasing us across the island because they’ll have worked out that we escaped by now.” Thea explains, bluntly.

“Robert said he was doing it for the greater good,” Felicity adds, pretending like she is not blushing furiously at Thea telling her parents that Oliver Queen likes her, and speaking with a little more tact than the little girl, “And Laurel wanted to believe him because she wants to believe that Oliver is good and so is his father, so she did. He’s very believable, but Thea and I both know better.”

“Yeah.” Thea agrees, “That.”

Quentin closes his eyes, pressing his fingers against his temple, “I had been afraid something like this would happen.” He admits, “Okay, we’re going to have to get out of here, our DragonSpy is nearby, it’s being watched by-”

“Quentin Lance.” The pleasant voice of Robert Queen interrupts, “What a delightful surprise.”

“Robert.” Quentin says, far less friendly, “I hear you’ve been up to no good again.” and then, without warning, they are surrounded. Henchmen come from every side to encircle the little group of five, trapping them in.

Thea is taken off to one side by Oliver and the Smoak-Lances (barring Laurel) are all forced to their knees before Robert.

“Laurel,” Quentin says, sounding pained, “What’re you doing, baby girl? I taught you better than this.”

“Daddy,” Laurel says in that sickly sweet tone she always uses to get her own way, “You always taught me to listen to my superiors too, and Robert is my superior and I have to trust his judgement.”

“Don’t throw everything away for a boy, Laurel.” Donna warns, “You’re smarter than that.”

“I’m not.” Laurel insists, “I’m doing this for my future and for everyone else’s.” There is no getting through to her.

Robert, meanwhile, has found the Archer device in the tent and is grinning maniacally, “Well,” he looks up at the four prisoners, ignoring his children who are off to the side, Oliver’s hand on Thea’s shoulder to keep her in place, “I think I’ll give the device a test drive. How about on… Agent Smoak.” Robert levels his gaze at Donna, making Felicity, Quentin and Bubbe Smoak start yelling in outrage.

“You know I can’t let you do that, Robert.” Quentin says, rising, “You know I’m going to have to stop you.”

Robert smirks, “What can you possibly do to stop me?”

“I’ll fight you.”

Robert laughs, but then sees how serious Quentin is, “Well, looks like we’re going to fight, Quentin. Here, Oliver, prepare the device for me.” Obediently, Oliver takes it and begins to fiddle with the settings. Felicity feels sick, is she about to watch Robert kill the only man who has ever been a good father to her? Is she about to watch the very device that she invented become the instrument of her mother’s death?

“Daddy, stop!” Laurel yells, “Don’t fight him! Ollie, please! Please, tell your father not to hurt my dad! Director Queen, you promised they’d be safe if I helped you!” Felicity is given brief pause by the final part of Laurel’s cries, but nobody else pays her any attention, and she is just pulled back and held by two of Robert’s henchmen. The two fathers fight, exchanging blow after blow. Both of them are formidable fighters, so formidable, in fact, that neither of them are able to get a hit in and the fight would take on a comical aspect if it were not so high stake.

But then, by pure chance. Quentin is the one to fall to Robert’s feet, the sand beneath his own slipping and sending him crashing to the ground. “Oliver, now.” Robert demands, and then Oliver hands over the device and, standing over Quentin, Robert aims it at Donna.

Felicity is about to watch her mother die. She is about to see her mother be killed by a blast from her device, programmed by the boy she thought she lo- in the hands of her boss, after her sister betrayed her. “MOM!” she yells, desperate, but Robert is already firing and Quentin is pushing to his feet and leaping right between Donna and… nothing.

Nothing happens. Archer gives a sputter and, with a few sparks, powers down. It does nothing.

“Oliver?” Robert turns to his son.

Oliver looks murderous, “As soon as Felicity told me what you were doing, I knew you had to be stopped. Thea and I discussed what to do, we agreed that everybody had to think we’d prioritise you over the world so that you’d believe it when we sided with you. And then, after she came back from the pig’s nest, Thea told me what Felicity had said and I knew exactly what we both had to do. I wasn’t about to let you hurt the family of the girl I love. I wasn’t about to let you hurt everybody in the world, not again. Mom would be furious with me. Now, as it is, she’s just going to be mad with you.” He smirks.

Laurel, for her part, looks overwhelmed with emotion, “Oh, Ollie!” she cries, “You did all of this for me? I love you too, of course I do!” she says dramatically, like she had not, moments before, been siding with Robert until he tried to fight Quentin.

Oliver just looks confused, “Sorry, what?”

“You just said you loved me.”

“No, I definitely didn’t say that.” Oliver denies, “I just said the family of the girl I love, I never said that was you.” And then, then his eyes shift almost involuntarily from Laurel Lance and onto Felicity Smoak.

Felicity is speechless.

An awkward silence falls over the beach, for once brought on not by Felicity’s words, but her lack of them.

She is spared from having to respond to Oliver’s unspoken claim by the deafening sound of approaching helicopters. For the second time in less than fifteen minutes, the beach is swarmed by agents. This time though, they are not Robert’s agents, but the President’s and, shockingly, Ray Palmer is also there, flying on the back of his winged pig and gleefully yelling “They did just want to be friends with me!” as he swoops through the amassed agents. They quickly subdue Robert’s forces, arresting them all. It leaves just Felicity, her parents, her Bubbe, her stepsister and the Queen siblings standing on the sand, Robert being taken away in handcuffs, cursing at the thought of his wife’s impending wrath.

*************************

Felicity spots a familiar figure in the distance and, ignoring Oliver’s eyes on her, she calls out, “Lyla!”

“Felicity!” the other girl calls out, “I got your message and saw you in trouble at the end and I had the talk with my father like you said and we came right away!”

“You did?” Felicity asks, touched. She has never had a friend who would come to help her at any moment before.

“Of course.” Lyla then looks back at her father, “Wait a second, I have some things to do.”

Lyla marches over to where Robert is climbing into a helicopter as best as he can with his hands tied, “Director Robert Queen,” she addresses him, “By order of the President of the United States, you’re fired.” She snatches away the man’s badge, much to his distress and then walks up to Quentin, “Agent Quentin Lance, congratulations. You’re the new Director of the EASS.” She hands over the badge, and then goes to Laurel, “Agent Black Canary, by order of the President, you’re suspended and remanded to the custody of Director Quentin Lance, who will decide upon your punishment.” Quentin’s furious look shows that Laurel’s punishment will be severe.

Lyla then goes to Oliver and Thea, “Agents Green Arrow and Speedy, for your bravery in doing what was right above all else, you are both being promoted to Level One agents, which will carry through to your move from the SpyKids programme, Agent Green Arrow.”

Smiling joyously, Lyla then heads to Felicity, “And, as for you, Agent Overwatch, for your ingenuity, perseverance against all odds and your contributions both to the Archer programme and the EASS as a whole, you are also being promoted to Level One and the President has ordered that your move from the SpyKids programme be expedited to next year rather than two years from now, as you have clearly outgrown it.” Felicity takes her new badge, speechless once again.

Quentin and Donna lead Laurel away, both looking furious. Laurel, for her part, looks extremely ashamed of herself and turns to Felicity, “I was trying to protect you too, you know? I didn’t want to have to watch Malcolm Merlyn hurt you. But I know I made a bad choice, I know I could’ve handled it better and led them astray. Everything just happened so fast and I know we don’t always get along but I never want to see you hurt.” Felicity just nods at Laurel, not quite ready to forgive the other girl, but understanding that Laurel would never want any harm to befall their family if it could be avoided.

*************************

“Well,” Lyla says to dispel some of the tension left by Laurel, “In a little extra good news, my dad allowed me to re-join the EASS!”

“Really?” Felicity squeals.

“Yep! I’m going to spend the next year re-training and then once I’m done, I’ll be a full member and – even better – John is currently without a partner so I’m going to be able to work with him as soon as I’m ready! John, come over here!” a huge man in his late teens comes lumbering over, smiling softly (and with the manner of a man totally in love) at Lyla as he stands beside the tiny woman.

“But what’s he going to do for the next year?” Felicity questions.

“Well, actually, he’s being partnered with somebody else who has a year to wait before his partner can join him.”

“Who?”

“Oliver.”

“I get a year working with John Diggle?” Oliver asks from Felicity’s side, where she has been diligently ignoring his existence. Oliver obviously has knowledge of who John Diggle is, and is excited at the prospect of partnering with him, “Cool.” John and Oliver shake hands.

“What’re you going to do for a partner now that Laurel’s suspended, Felicity?” Thea asks, having joined Lyla and Felicity with her brother.

“Oh.” Felicity frowns, “I don’t-”

“She’ll be with me, of course.” Somebody says behind her. Felicity turns.

“Sara!” she squeals, throwing herself into the middle sister’s arms, “I thought you were deep undercover with Ava!”

“Well once I heard you’d gone missing, I came back as soon as I could. Dad and Donna made me stay in the DragonSpy, but you know me, I can’t stay out of a good fight. As soon as I saw the President’s chopper I came ashore. But we’re done with the mission anyway now and since Ava’s leaving Spy Kids in a few months too, I figured I could stick with my baby sis for the next year before I can join my girlfriend in the big leagues.”

Felicity cannot stop smiling, “Oh, this is going to be so good!” she says, but then her face falls, “Oh… but if you’re going to partner with Ava again next year, does that mean I have to go back with Laurel once she’s off suspension? I don’t really want to work with somebody I don’t fully trust…”

“Actually,” interjects Lyla, “You’re forgetting something. There’s a certain someone who will also be without partner in a year, once I finish my training and take John back.”

Everybody looks at Oliver Queen. But he only has eyes for Felicity. “What do you say, Felicity?” he asks, softly, “Would you like to be my partner in a year?”

“Let’s give them some space.” Felicity distantly hears Lyla say, and then the two of them are left alone, their friends and siblings having all retreated.

“Is what Thea said true?” Felicity is looking at the ground.

“About me liking you? About my poor choices over the last year? About you misinterpreting my every move? Yes, all of it’s true.”

“And…” Felicity sucks in a huge breath, “Is what you said true?”

Oliver says nothing, but then Felicity feels gentle, callused fingertips at her chin, tilting up her head so that she is looking at Felicity, “Every word.” He swears, “I know that the last year has been a mess, and I’ve been a mess and we’ve barely spent any time together since Vertigo and almost every time we have it’s ended with a fight, but I just can’t help myself, Felicity Smoak. I love you.”

Felicity has a large lump in her throat, emotion overwhelming her, “I thought once that you liked me the way that I like you, and then everything went wrong. I can’t go through that again. I can’t let you in only for you to mess me around. I need to be able to trust you.”

“I’ll earn your trust, I’ll do whatever it takes. All I ask is that you let me love you. Just give me a chance Felicity, please.”

Felicity thinks about it, biting her lip, “I guess… we can take it one step at a time.”

Oliver smiles beatifically, “Can step one be me kissing you?”

Felicity blushes, and forgetting that she is on a beach with her entire family and most of her friends, she nods.

The kiss is sweet and simple, just two people getting to know one another, luxuriating in being together. Finally, Oliver pulls back, “I’m gonna prove myself to you so well that in a year’s time, you’ll be begging to be my partner so that we can spend _all_ of our time together.”

Felicity laughs, feeling genuinely happy as all of the pieces of her life feel like they are falling into place, “I’m going to hold you to that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all folks! My spy kids are done and I'll be back soon with a new thing I've been working on for you. Thank you to anybody who spent the time to read <3

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on twitter [@MagusLibera](https://twitter.com/MagusLibera).


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